The invention relates to fingerprinting and more specifically to a fingerprint card holder assembly.
Presently police departments and other government agencies utilize the same or very similar fingerprint cards. These cards have a heading portion and a fingerprint portion. The fingerprint portion usually consists of three transversely extending rows. These rows are broken up into frames for receiving the individual fingerprints of the respective fingers of the left and right hands of an individual. The bottom row is divided into frames that receive imprints of the fingers taken simultaneously together.
The process for fingerprinting an individual requires that the individual have ink applied to their fingertips and then the finger is pressed downwardly into its identified frame with a rolling motion to give a complete imprint thereof. The ink utilized for making the fingerprints normally takes at least a half hour to dry. As a result, the fingerprints on the cards can be smudged very easily if proper care is not taken to prevent them from being touched before they are completely dry. Sometimes this means that a new set of fingerprints must be taken and this results in an unecessary waste of the police personnel's time.
In the Tremaine U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,071, a unique improved fingerprinting system is disclosed and incorporated into this patent application by reference. His fingerprinting system takes a standard fingerprint card and he applies an adhesive to the top surface of the fingerprint portion of the card. The card with its exposed adhesive on its top surface is inserted into a fingerprint card holder and sequentially advanced so that the respective rows can have fingerprints applied to the individual frames therein. A problem exists when using a fingerprint card such as Tremaine's when used with a conventional state of the art fingerprint card holder. The top surface of the card tends to stick to the underside surface of the fingerprint card guide and also to the rear surface of the fingerprint card locking unit. It is then necessary to use unproductive time to free the fingerprint card and sometimes the endeavor results in messing up some of the prints on the card.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel fingerprint card holder assembly that can be used with the novel fingerprinting system described in Tremaine's U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,017.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel fingerprint card holder assembly that is economical to manufacture and market.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel fingerprint card holder assembly that is easy to use.